Protests against Bill have spread from Assam to other northeastern states

GUWAHATI: Despite assurances, neither the Centre nor the BJP-led
state government has been able to contain the evergrowing street
protests against Delhi's decision to amend citizenship rules.
Resistance against the Centre's proposal, in fact, has spread to
all the other six northeastern states, some of which have already
seen violent demonstrations. Once the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill,
2016 formally becomes an act, it will offer citizenship to
non-Muslims from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Opponents of the bill say migrants from Pakistan and Afghanistan
are negligible but the number from Bangladesh is huge and has the
potential to threaten the identity of the Assamese as well as other
indigenous people. With Bezbaruah's departure, the panel loses much
of its credibility as an agency mandated to protect and preserve
the identity of the Assamese as well as the indigenous people.

Earlier this week, two former presidents of the Asam Sahitya Sabha,
Rongbang Terang and Nagen Saikia, and noted educationist Mukunda
Rajbangshi had opted out of the panel. The All Assam Students'
Union (AASU), one
of the proponents of the 1978-85 anti-foreigner agitation and one
of the signatories to the Assam Accord, was the first to
dissociate itself from the Clause 6 panel. It announced its
decision soon after the Lok Sabha passed the citizenship bill on
Tuesday.

AASU has described the panel as a "diversionary tactic" of the
Centre before the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. It is of
the view that the bill turns Clause 5 of the Assam Accord
redundant. This clause deals with the issue of foreigners and sets
the criteria for determining who a foreigner is and what action can
be taken against them.

Saikia justified his decision to stay out the panel by questioning
the efficacy of a panel announced "at the fag-end" of the NDA
government at the Centre. Terang, on the other hand, cited poor
health as his reason for opting out. Like AASU, Rajbangshi says the
passing of the bill by the Lok Sabha has made the Clause 6
committee "meaningless".

Following a different route of protest, writer and senior
journalist Dhiren Bezbaruah says he will remain in the panel so
that he can highlight its inherent fallacies.